According to August 27, 2014's "Underemployment, College Majors, Compensation And Gender":

"A survey found 48% of the respondents identified as underemployed.

Compensation was a leading factor.

It is not just liberal arts and general studies that are identified as underemployed.

There seems to be a gender dimension to the issue as well.

...modern economy simply does not need as many full time workers as it has in the past.

Underemployed refers to the feeling that one's job did not put their education or experience to work as much as they should.

Some ostensibly more practical majors, like criminal justice and business management graduates, identify themselves as underemployed in greater numbers than liberal arts or general studies. PayScale survey found 43% of the respondents felt underemployed and poor pay was a leading factor.

PayScale found that nine of the ten most underemployed majors were dominated by women. Underemployment may be, at least partly, a function of the gender wage gap.

Georgetown University Center on Education and Workforce survey found that the least underemployed majors were dominated by men. And men overwhelmingly dominated the highest paid majors.

Among the ten least paid majors, women dominate nine.

Sommers argued that the gender wage gap does not really exist. She argues that it is a question of life choices. In particular she states, "Much of the wage gap can be explained away by simply taking account of college majors." We suspect the situation is more complicated and the causal links are not clear."

Are women being underpaid? You betcha. According to HRSA's Women's Health USA 2013, women earn less at every educational level, when compared to men. And, the pay disparity gets worse with greater educational attainment. How about equal pay for equal work?

This inequity in pay is magnified when statistics show that 31.2% of families living below the poverty level are households headed by a single mother vs. only 16.1% headed by a single father.

Make sure you stay around to watch your kids grow up. Besides eating healthy and exercising daily, make sure your health is in tip-top shape. Make the appointment and get screened. Man up and wear the gown!

Women who study business believe it will give them a practical edge, says Judy Touchton, founder and CEO of Womenleadersmove.com, a consultancy for women in higher education. Women are choosing business majors because they, often guided by their parents, think they will be more likely to find jobs after college In this economy, practicality reigns.

Still, a business degree does not insure against the income gap. A woman one year out of college and working full time typically earns only 80% as much as her male counterparts. Why? According to the AAUW's 2007 Behind the Pay Gap report, women with business degrees are twice as likely as men with similar degrees to enter administrative, clerical or support positions earlier in their career. On the other hand, men with a business degree are more likely to enter management positions.

According to the results of the TODAY/AOL Ideal to Real Body Image Survey, released on 2/24/14:

"Women spend an average of 55 minutes every day working on their appearance. Let's break that down a little further: That amounts to 335 hours every year or an entire two-week vacation lost to their looks

There's nothing wrong with caring about your appearance, of course. Part of caring for yourself is paying attention to the way you look. But there's a difference between self-care and investing too much of your self -worth in your appearance, and it's a tricky balance to stay on the right side of that line. Obsessing over your appearance is terribly unhealthy, potentially leading to mental health problems like anxiety, depression and disordered eating, decades of research has shown.

The survey found that 60 percent of adult women have negative thoughts about themselves weekly. That's compared to 36 percent of men. Even more alarming: 78 percent of teen girls are plagued with this kind of self-criticism.

Adult women worry more regularly about their appearance (67 percent at least once a week or more) than they do about finances (62 percent), health (49 percent), family/relationships (46 percent) or professional success (40 percent). Men aren't far behind, either, with 53 percent regularly worrying about their appearance. Only finances at 59 percent rank higher among weekly worries for men.

Whether they are engaging in fat talk or old talk, 77 percent of adult women and 80 percent of teen girls complained about their appearance to someone at least once in the past month.

Appearance worries hit moms doubly hard. 73 percent of moms regularly worry about their appearance, compared to 65 percent of women without children. Plus, 57 percent of moms worry about how their own body image affects their children.
Forty-one percent of adult women say that selfies and other flattering online photos make them "feel more confident, but 46 percent say overall, social media makes me feel more self-conscious about my appearance. Sixty-five percent of teen girls say selfies and flattering online pictures make them feel confident, while 55 percent report feeling selfie-conscious.

78 percent of women surveyed said they spent almost an hour a day on their appearance to "feel better about themselves." Looking good seems to be its own reward for women.

Nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of millennials (those age 16-34) worry that people are judging their appearance. On the upside, we fret less with age: 51 percent of Gen Xers (ages 35 to 49) and 35 percent of Boomers (ages 50 to 68) share that worry.

Eighty percent of teen girls compare themselves to glamorous celebrity images. Among those, nearly half are left feeling dissatisfied with their appearance. It makes sense that 56 percent of teen girls wish photo-shopping of models and celebrities would stop.

We are certainly our own worst critics. The average woman frets about six body parts, while the average man worries about three. Noted: Nobody likes their stomach with 69 percent of women worrying about their tummies compared to 52 percent of men. For men, thinning hair comes next (24 percent), followed by skin issues (23 percent).

It is not a bad thing to be invested in our appearance," says Jonathan Rudiger, a clinical psychologist in Nashville. "Our physical appearance is very much a part of the self. However, we must avoid investing in our appearance for self-worth. Appearance is only one aspect of the self. In our culture, we spend too much time focused on the external while neglecting the internal."

When asked at what age they felt best about their body, both men and women agreed on the golden age of 27. However, that does not mean our best days are behind us. The good news is that along with wrinkles comes the wisdom to accept them, and body image improves with age. While 80 percent of women under age 24 worry about their appearance regularly, among the 55+ crowd, that number drops to 52 percent.

It's totally normal to not be crazy about every single aspect of your physical self, especially for women, says psychologist Kathryn Gordon, an assistant professor at North Dakota State University. The trouble starts when you begin to obsess over the things you hate about your appearance, says Gordon, who has studied the negative effects of dwelling on body hatred.

There are a couple proven ways to turn down the volume on those negative thoughts:

1. Distract yourself. When you notice yourself headed down a body-hatred shame spiral, sometimes all it takes is consciously trying to shifting your thoughts elsewhere, says Sarah Etu, a clinical psychologist in Fredericksburg, Va., who has published research that suggests distraction can lessen our stress over the way we look. If it's too hard to force yourself to change your thoughts, try doing something active, like doing the dishes, taking a walk or going to the gym.

2. Accept yourself. Teach yourself to appreciate your body for what it can do, not what it looks like. Maybe your ankles are a little cankle-y, but did they carry you across a finish line at a 5K? Maybe your stomach is a little squishy, but did it carry your kids? When we move away from pretty and ugly labels, we can start to appreciate just how amazing our bodies really are," Rudiger says. "When we set healthy goals and stop focusing on what is wrong with our bodies, we can finally start to appreciate life and enjoy our connection to our body."

Because these are the bodies we're stuck with, he says. "We might as well learn to enjoy it and nurture it while we work on changing those unhelpful negative thoughts.

While on the topic of women taking care of themselves, here is a "Pregnancy and Vaccination Pocket Guide" developed by the Minnesota Department of Health. It's always best to keep up with vaccines and get them at the appropriate time. However, exposure to potential pathogens may warrant getting some vaccines while pregnant. Important to keep in mind that some may be contraindicated. Check with your health care provider.

Happy Mother's Day to all women who believe in the power of nurturing! On this day, take a moment to reflect on how important it is to take care of ourselves so we can continue to nurture those we love!

May 7, 2016 - May 8 - 14 is National Women's Health Week

Graphic source: http://www.womenshealth.gov/nwhw/tools/logo-banner/

"National Women's Health Week is an observance led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health. The goal is to empower women to make their health a priority. National Women's Health Week also serves as a time to help women understand what it means to be well.

What does it mean to be a well woman?
It's a state of mind. It's being as healthy as you can be. And, most importantly, it's about taking steps to improve your physical and mental health:

Visit a health care professional to receive regular checkups and preventive screenings.

Are you looking for a challenging career? Then join a diverse group of public health professionals who work all over the world, protecting mankind from itself and others and championing the beauty and the gift of Nature that is our environment.

Who are public health professionals?

We are health communicators and educators spreading the word about how to live well and long;

We are epidemiologists studying disease while developing strategies to prevent its spread;

We are sanitarians ensuring that our food and water will not make us sick;

We are health care providers working to ensure that everyone can get the preventive services needed to stay healthy, and that the health services provided meet the standards of medical care;

We are policy makers advocating for and developing laws to protect the Public good;

We are disaster preparedness experts supporting the important work of first responders;

We are professors teaching future practitioners the basic principles needed to develop effective interventions that are evidence-based;

We work at all levels of government, and in any organization that share our vision of Public Health; and

We are grass roots advocates and coalition builders interested in empowering communities short on resources;

But, most of all, we collaborate with anyone and everyone to get the work done;

And, we do our best work totally unnoticed, because when the work doesn't get done, you will know it.

Yes, we are all these things and more! Checkout our online directory of 66 Public Health Professionals.

This kind of chart known as a scatterplot is very familiar to people who are used to working with numbers, such as economists, scientists, researchers and data journalists. It is a good way to show a relationship between two variables.

About eight-in-ten (79%) of those with a college degree and 84% of those with a postgraduate degree chose the right answer out of four options. In contrast, only half of those with a high school education or less drew the correct conclusion.

We forget that we don't just understand graphics automatically,....The bar chart, the line chart, we are taught how to read those in school. We're taught how to understand graphics. And in most cases,..students aren't exposed to the scatterplot in grade school. It's mainly students who take a course in economics, statistics or some other scientific field who are exposed to the relationship analysis the scatterplot illustrates.

Visualizations should be read. They are like a piece of text. But once you read one, you know how to read another.

The scatterplot plots two variables in relationship to each other. One important point to understand is that the scatterplot shows correlation, not causality,...

Often, a scatterplot includes a line, known as the line of best fit, that helps to summarize the underlying relationship between two variables. The slope of this line can help illustrate whether an increase or decrease in one variable is associated with an increase or decrease in the second.

In our example, the tooth decay scatterplot shows a positive relationship. (A negative one would slope down from left to right.) You can see the strength of the relationship between two variables by how closely the data points are clustered around the line of best fit: the more data points on or near the line of best fit, the stronger the overall correlation.

Welcome to a look at my E-mail statistics! Here is another way of looking at the total of E-mails I have to deal with on a daily basis. The average E-mail statistics reported yesterday doesn't tell the whole story.

While the average daily E-mail statistic for 2014 (336.49) and 2015 (335.14) showed a slight improvement in the number of E-mails I have to deal with, the real fact of the matter is that it does not truly reflect the greater burden of dealing with E-mails because the rising proportion of regular E-mail I am getting, which I have to read.

In actuality, I ONLY had to deal with an average daily burden of 168 regular E-mails in 2014, whereas, in 2015 my average daily burden of regular E-mails was 201! So, excuse me if I don't answer your E-mail right away! And, this goes for those individuals who insist on E-mailing me every 2 or 3 weeks to find out why I didn't respond to the previous one(s) they sent!

February 23, 2016 - Annual E-mail Statistics, Part 2

Welcome to a look at my E-mail statistics! Since I now have several years of E-mail totals, it is always fun to do some trend analyses.

Here is a line chart of the percentage of spam I got on an annual basis, and the average number of E-mails I got on a daily basis.

The good news is I am getting less spam these days! The not-so-great news is that I am still getting about the same amount of E-mails on a daily basis. And, the truly bad news is I have more E-mails that I have to read. At least with spam I can just delete without reading!

February 22, 2016 - Annual E-mail Statistics, Part 1

Welcome to a look at my E-mail statistics! Since 2012, I have been diligent about keeping track of how many E-mails I get on a daily basis.

I started doing this because I tell people that I am constantly inundated with E-mails. I would say that I get hundreds. And, then people would say that nobody gets hundreds.

So, like the epidemiologist that I am (among other things), I decided that I will track the number of E-mails I get and then analyze the results.

Here is a bar chart of the total number of E-mails I got in 2015, per month. The monthly totals are categorized as either regular E-mail and Spam. For 2015, I got 122,309! Yes, indeed, I do get hundreds of E-mails a day!

Here is an interesting graphic that I have shared with my class. As much as we would like to believe that using electronic devices make us more productive, the truth of the matter is they are basically time wasters.

According to Flurry's analysis of 2014's mobile usage, most of what we have on electronic devices do not contribute to productivity. In fact, only 4% of what we have on those devices is devoted to productivity. 'nuff said.

It is hard to believe that it has been 16 years since I published the first webpages that turned into this Web site. Many thanks to the thousands of visitors who contributed millions of hits during the past 15 years, and for all the nice comments along the way. I will continue to strive to make this Web site a worthwhile place to spend your time and find credible public health and health information. Thank you so much!

October 17, 2014 - October is Health Literacy Month

Graphic source: http://www.healthliteracymonth.org/

Be a Health Literacy Hero! I am!

For Health Literacy Month, the Healthliteracymonth.org is accepting stories from any person who or organization that addresses health literacy in their work. There is a listing of those who have submitted their stories.